The Grammar of Meaning: Normativity and Semantic Discourse

by Mark Norris Lance , John O'Leary-Hawthorne

• ISBN13: 9780521583008
• ISBN10: 0521583004
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-01-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

What is the function of concepts pertaining to meaning in sociolinguistic practice? In this study, the authors argue that we can approach a satisfactory answer by displacing the standard picture of meaning talk as a sort of description with picture that takes seriously the similarity between meaning talk and various types of normative injunction. In their discussion of this approach, they investigate the more general question of the nature of the normative, as well as a range of important topics specific to the philosophy of language, including the work of Quine, Sellars and Wittgenstein.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(16)
PART I THE PLACE OF MEANING TALK IN SOCIO-LINGUISTIC PRACTICE	17	(222)
1 The ends and means of translation: critical reflections on Quine's indeterminacy of translation thesis	19	(64)
2 Synonymy, analyticity, and a priori authority	83	(89)
3 Where do we go from here?: a pragmatist account of normative judgment	172	(67)
PART II NATURALISM AND MEANING TALK	239	(197)
4 The epistemology of meaning and the analysis of meaning	241	(57)
5 Robust meaning theories and canonical dispositions	298	(46)
6 Reduction and naturalism	344	(29)
7 Realism and factuality	373	(63)
Bibliography	436	(11)
Index	447